Podcast appearances and mentions of Daniel Loxton

We're delighted to get to talk with Adrian Shine, who has worked for decades to raise awareness about Loch Ness and investigated the legendary creature said to inhabit the dark waters of that deep Scottish lake.  He's written a new book about Sea Monsters and their connection to the Loch Ness Mystery which releases April 1st, 2025. A Natural History of Sea Monsters (affiliate link)The Loch Ness CentreIn the intro you hear a clip of IN SEARCH OF from S01E20 - which features a young Adrian. Check out In Research Of's coverage with guest Daniel Loxton here.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

Send us a textNotesDaniel Loxton is an author and science communicator. He has published books about skepticism and was previously the editor of Junior Skeptic magazine. Daniel, David Bloomberg and I discuss skepticism, its importance, and how we can promote its presence in our information world in this episode.Linkshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Loxtonhttps://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/product-liability/roundup-lawsuit-update/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hotezhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Festingerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_West

First we discuss how the term “Gish gallop” has entered the common vernacular thanks to the recent Presidential debate. Then Ben ponders why conspiracy buffs don't care about the admitted, real Boeing conspiracy, or why psychics can't offer up explanations for the Rust killing. Celestia gets excited about folklore in pop culture: namely, “The Crooked Man” in a new Hellboy movie. For our main segment, we are rejoined by skeptical author and illustrator Daniel Loxton, to talk about MONSTER HUNTS!—that is, serious expeditions to find cryptids or other mysterious creatures. From Nazis looking for Yeti to missionaries searching out dinosaurs in Africa, there are anthropological considerations when engaging with locals in a foreign land. And what makes a monster hunt successful? Lock Ness is a success in that practically every drop of water in it has been examined, to no avail. We touch on Ben's trips to remote parts of Nicaragua to look for the chupacabra, as well as other expeditions in the 20th century, to find a death worm in Mongolia, the Mokele-mbembe in Africa, and a mermaid-like Ri in New Guinea. We also touch on overpriced Bigfoot “hunt” experiences as well as “educational hoaxes” like snipe hunting.

First, Ben and Celestia have several tidbits to discuss, from Micheal Mann's court win to chemtrails popping up in social media. Ben is watching another cult docuseries, and we get into the unfortunate trend of obituary pirating. For our main segment, we are joined by the delightful Daniel Loxton, illustrator, author, editor and longtime skeptic luminary. He takes us on a tour of the long-debunked story about a 15-foot penguin in Florida. But a simple debunking is only the surface of this tale, which has much to teach us about modern popular paranormal culture, the mixing of sci-comm with mystery-mongering, and the different levels of investigation. This leads us into a conversation on the nature of skepticism itself, and where our future lies. 

We're created some monsters -- or so they say. Just in time for Halloween, we're going to decrypt the Satanic legend-making over American cryptids, with the help of Karen and Blake from the long-running skeptics' podcast, MonsterTalk.   SHOW LINKS MonsterTalk: website, Twitter, and Facebook The Conversation: The monster festival – a pilgrimage to small town America, Joe Laycock (2018) Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program, by James T Lacatski D.Eng., Colm A Kelleher Ph.D., George Knapp (2021) Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids, by Daniel Loxton (2012) Journal of Mormon History: A Mormon Bigfoot, Matthew Bowman (2007) Western Folklore: "New" Legends: Some Perspectives from Anthropology, Phillips Stevens Jr. (1990) Aztlan Magazine: Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore, William Nericcio (2012) What Happens Next: Contemporary Urban Legends & Popular Culture, by Gail de Vos (2012) Ten Disturbing Dogman Sightings of the American Midwest, Aaron Fox (2021) LA Times: At Remote Forest Lake Monstrous Legends Spawn, Jason Song (2001) Jersey Devil: The History of an American Cryptid, Carolyn Cox (2018) New York Times: Ministers Plan Their Own Encounters, Matt Richtell (1997)   GET IN TOUCH WITH BLACK MASS APPEAL Facebook Twitter Instagram Patreon Tabitha Slander's Instagram Discord server   SATANIC BAY AREA Website Facebook Twitter (as @SatanicSF) Instagram Sign up for Satanic Bay Area's newsletter On TikTok as DailyBaphirmations Coffee Hour is the third Thursday of every month from 6 – 8 pm at Wicked Grounds in San Francisco!

In this episode of the workers cauldron we talk about how rumors of living (non-avian) Dinosaurs in Central Africa and alleged glowing pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea are intricately linked to the history of racism and colonialism.Bonus Content: Problematic LEGO sets, Human Zoos and Raquel WelchReferencesWide Atlantic Weird: Monsters of the Frontierhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-the-frontier-mokele-mbembe-and/id1448284008?i=1000502151641Edward Guimont: Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africahttps://contingentmag.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero: Abominable Science!https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12930972-abominable-scienceDarren Naish: Hunting Monstershttps://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/my-new-book-hunting-monsters-cryptozoology-and-the-reality-behind-the-myths/Allison Hopper: Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacyhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/denial-of-evolution-is-a-form-of-white-supremacy/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/theworkerscauldron)

In 1818, Army veteran John Cleves Symmes Jr. declared that the earth was hollow and proposed to lead an expedition to its interior. He promoted the theory in lectures and even won support on Capitol Hill. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Symmes' strange project and its surprising consequences. We'll also revisit age fraud in sports and puzzle over a curious customer. Intro: Grazing cattle align their bodies with magnetic north. The Conrad Cantzen Shoe Fund buys footwear for actors. Sources for our feature on John Cleves Symmes Jr.: David Standish, Hollow Earth: The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface, 2007. Peter Fitting, ed., Subterranean Worlds: A Critical Anthology, 2004. Martin Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, 1986. Paul Collins, Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck, 2015. Americus Symmes, The Symmes Theory of Concentric Spheres: Demonstrating That the Earth Is Hollow, Habitable Within, and Widely Open About the Poles, 1878. James McBride and John Cleves Symmes, Symmes's Theory of Concentric Spheres: Demonstrating That the Earth Is Hollow, Habitable Within, and Widely Open About the Poles, 1826. Adam Seaborn, Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery, 1820. Donald Prothero, "The Hollow Earth," Skeptic 25:3 (2020), 18-23, 64. Elizabeth Hope Chang, "Hollow Earth Fiction and Environmental Form in the Late Nineteenth Century," Nineteenth-Century Contexts 38:5 (2016), 387-397. Marissa Fessenden, "John Quincy Adams Once Approved an Expedition to the Center of the Earth," smithsonianmag.com, May 7, 2015. Daniel Loxton, "Journey Inside the Fantastical Hollow Earth: Part One," Skeptic 20:1 (2015), 65-73. "Journey Inside the Fantastical Hollow Earth: Part Two," Skeptic 20:2 (2015), 65-73. Matt Simon, "Fantastically Wrong: The Real-Life Journey to the Center of the Earth That Almost Was," Wired, Oct. 29, 2014. Kirsten Møllegaard and Robin K. Belcher, "Death, Madness, and the Hero's Journey: Edgar Allan Poe's Antarctic Adventures," International Journal of Arts & Sciences 6:1 (2013) 413-427. Michael E. Bakich, "10 Crazy Ideas From Astronomy's Past," Astronomy 38:8 (August 2010), 32-35. Darryl Jones, "Ultima Thule: Arthur Gordon Pym, the Polar Imaginary, and the Hollow Earth," Edgar Allan Poe Review 11:1 (Spring 2010), 51-69. Johan Wijkmark, "Poe's Pym and the Discourse of Antarctic Exploration," Edgar Allan Poe Review 10:3 (Winter 2009), 84-116. Donald Simanek, "The Shape of the Earth -- Flat or Hollow?" Skeptic 13:4 (2008), 68-71, 80. Duane A. Griffin, "Hollow and Habitable Within: Symmes's Theory of Earth's Internal Structure and Polar Geography," Physical Geography 25:5 (2004), 382-397. Tim Harris, "Where All the Geese and Salmon Go," The Age, July 22, 2002. Victoria Nelson, "Symmes Hole, or the South Polar Romance," Raritan 17:2 (Fall 1997), 136-166. Hans-Joachim Lang and Benjamin Lease, "The Authorship of Symzonia: The Case for Nathaniel Ames," New England Quarterly 48:2 (June 1975), 241-252. Conway Zirkle, "The Theory of Concentric Spheres: Edmund Halley, Cotton Mather, & John Cleves Symmes," Isis 37:3/4 (July 1947), 155-159. William Marion Miller, "The Theory of Concentric Spheres," Isis 33:4 (December 1941), 507-514. "John Cleves Symmes, the Theorist: Second Paper," Southern Bivouac 2:10 (March 1887), 621-631. Will Storr, "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," Sunday Telegraph, July 13, 2014. Richard Foot, "Believers Look for Fog-Shrouded Gate to Inner Earth," Vancouver Sun, May 30, 2007. Umberto Eco, "Outlandish Theories: Kings of the (Hollow) World," New York Times, July 21, 2006. Mark Pilkington, "Far Out: Going Underground," Guardian, June 16, 2005. Leigh Allan, "Theory Had Holes In It, Layers, Too," Dayton Daily News, Dec. 11, 2001. Tom Tiede, "John Symmes: Earth Is Hollow," [Bowling Green, Ky.] Park City Daily News, July 9, 1978. Louis B. Wright, "Eccentrics, Originals, and Still Others Ahead of Their Times," New York Times, July 21, 1957. "Sailing Through the Earth!" Shepparton [Victoria] Advertiser, March 24, 1936. "People Inside the Earth Excited America in 1822," The Science News-Letter 27:728 (March 23, 1935), 180-181. "Monument to a Dead Theory," Port Gibson [Miss.] Reveille, Jan. 20, 1910. "Story of John Symmes: His Plan to Lead an Expedition to the Interior of the Earth," New York Times, Sept. 18, 1909. "The Delusion of Symmes," New York Times, Sept. 10, 1909. "Symmes' Hole," Horsham [Victoria] Times, May 18, 1897. "An Arctic Theory Gone Mad," New York Times, May 12, 1884. "Symmes's Theory: His Son Expounds It -- The Earth Hollow and Inhabited," New York Times, Dec. 2, 1883. "Planetary Holes," New York Times, June 14, 1878. "Symmes and Howgate: What the Believer in the Polar Opening Thinks of the Latter's Plan of Reaching the Open Polar Sea," New York Times, Feb. 24, 1877. "In the Bowels of the Earth," Ballarat Courier, March 14, 1876. "Symmes' Hole," New York Times, Dec. 24, 1875. Lester Ian Chaplow, "Tales of a Hollow Earth: Tracing the Legacy of John Cleves Symmes in Antarctic Exploration and Fiction," thesis, University of Canterbury, 2011. Listener mail: "Danny Almonte," Wikipedia (accessed June 27, 2021). Tom Kludt, "Age-Old Problem: How Easy Is It for Athletes to Fake Their Birthdates?" Guardian, March 16, 2021. "Age Fraud in Association Football," Wikipedia (accessed July 3, 2021). Muthoni Muchiri, "Age Fraud in Football: How Can It Be Tackled?" BBC News, April 26, 2019. Dina Fine Maron, "Dear FIFA: There Is No Scientific Test to Prevent Age Fraud," Scientific American, Aug. 11, 2016. This week's lateral thinking puzzle is taken from Agnes Rogers' 1953 book How Come? A Book of Riddles, sent to us by listener Jon Jerome. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Jeb and Blake are joined by Daniel Loxton, co-author (with Donald Prothero) of Abominable Science!, and the regular author of the Junior Skeptic portion of Skeptic magazine. It's a deep dive into Loch Ness to look for the creature(s) said to inhabit the lake. Watch this episode of ISO episode on YouTube. Discussed: Robert Rines, Inventor & Lawyer Robert Rines - Appreciation from MIT  Academy of Applied Science  The Rines Photos critiqued by Darren Naish (the Tetzoo blog & podcast)  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)  The "real" Dinsdale footage  The Water Bailiff (Alex Campbell) is the first journalist who covered this story. Loch Ness A. Shine video for Google Maps  Ness Toyota commercial with Shine Jeb's own video of wake ness monster Nimoy Fashion:

Encore release October 19, 2018. Encore release July 12, 2017. The sports world continues to be rocked by controversy over gay rights. NFL punter Chris Kluwe (who's straight, for what it's worth) claims he was let go because of his advocacy for gay rights. (Kluwe is also the author of the humorous and thought-provoking essay collection Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies, (available in hardcover and for Kindle). Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, recently retired footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger has revealed that he's gay and is calling for people to put pressure on Russia over that country's anti-gay developments ahead of the Sochi Olympics. (And speaking of athletes, 95-year-old Belgian masters athletics champion Emiel Pauwels decided to end his own life rather than suffer the physical, emotional and financial pain of terminal cancer. With his family's support, Pauwels organized a farewell party and was allowed to die in accordance with Belgian law. Would that it were so in America.) Also... Oklahoma continues to be in the news. A Satanic organization has unveiled their design for a monument they want erected, on state property, in response to a Ten Commandments monument. At the same time, American Atheists has announced a lawsuit aimed at getting the Ten Commandments removed (and if they're not, AA will apply to have their own monument).  Finally, a federal judge has issued a scathing smackdown of Oklahoma's decade-old constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, virtually guaranteeing a Supreme Court showdown. Last but not least, David recommends Daniel Loxton's article about the Immanuel Velikovsky, a brilliant man who nonetheless championed crackpot ideas. Check out Loxton's article in the latest issue of Skeptic.

Brea and Mallory talk about spooky nonfiction with special guest, Ross Blocher, from Oh No Ross and Carrie! Use the hashtag #ReadingGlassesPodcast to participate in online discussion! Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!   Reading Glasses Merch Links -   Oh No Ross and Carrie http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/oh-no-ross-and-carrie   Kid Lit Says No Kids In Cages Pre-Order Mallory’s Book! The Lady from the Black Lagoon Reading Glasses Live Event 7/1 NoveList Plus Reading Glasses Transcriptions on Gretta Reading Glasses Facebook Group Reading Glasses Goodreads Group Apex Magazine Page Advice Article   Amazon Wish List Books Mentioned - Gulp by Mary Roach Night Shift by Joanna Angel   The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil Stories from the Messengers by Mike Clelland The Alienist by Caleb Carr Abominable Science! by Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero Stiff by Mary Roach Ghost Hunters by Deborah Blum   The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum   Ghostland by Colin Dickey Trolls by John Lindow Scream by Margee Kerr   The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan   Flim Flam by James Randi   Death from the Skies! by Philip Plait Abducted by Susan A. Clancy From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson   Caesar’s Last Breath by Sam Kean Psychic Blues by Mark Edward Conspiracies Declassified by Brian Dunning Dealing with Demons by Bob Larson Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix   Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson   The Martian by Andy Weir The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey    

Aaron, Colin, Evalyn, and Cami gather around the campfire to read Daniel Loxton's new dinosaur book for kids... Ankylosaur Attack! View full episode show note at www.MyDogRocket.com

It’s October, MONSTER MONTH! We’re starting it off right with an episode about the Yeti! I literally could have made this episode an hour long without even touching on half the information out there, but no one wants to listen to me talk for that long. If you're intrigued and want to hear more about our big furry friend from the Himalayas, check out the fine podcasts listed below. The Himalayas, in map form: A Himalayan brown bear (tongue blep alert!): A bear standing up (this is a brown bear from Alaska but I like the picture. Bears stand up a lot): Recommended listening: Museum of Natural Mystery - episode 14: "Backtracking with Bigfoot" - highly recommended for information about North American bigfoot/Sasquatch lore and history. It's family friendly and not very long. I heart it. MonsterTalk - episode 116 "Yetipalooza" - lots of Yeti information and some terrible, terrible puns Strange Matters Podcast - "Legendary Humanoid Creatures" - a good overview of a lot of different bigfoot type monsters, including the Yeti Hidden Creatures Podcast - Episode Six A "Yearning for the Yeti's Discovery" and Episode Six B "The Yeti...Again" - lots of info on the Yeti All of the above should be family friendly, with possible mild language. Resources/further reading: The Historical Bigfoot by Chad Arment Abominable Science! by Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero Hunting Monsters by Darren Naish Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. It’s October and that means monsters. Let’s jump right in with one of the biggest stars of cryptozoology, bigfoot! As part of my research for this episode, I listened to other podcasts that have covered bigfoot and his kin. One of those was the Museum of Natural Mystery’s episode 14, Backtracking with Bigfoot. I was more than a little dismayed when I listened to that one, because it’s exactly what I had hoped to do with this episode. In fact, while Museum of Natural Mystery covers other topics than just animals, when they do focus on animals they scratch the same itch I created Strange Animals podcast to scratch. If I’d discovered them earlier, the podcast you’re listening to now would probably be about music or something, not animals. There’s a link to Backtracking with Bigfoot in the show notes and I highly recommend you go listen to it. It focuses mainly on the Bigfoot phenomenon in North America, from Sasquatch to skunk apes. Rather than cover the same ground, my focus here is going to be on bigfoot legends from other parts of the world. There’s so much fascinating information out there that I had to break the episode into two parts. This week we’re looking at the yeti. But first, some background. There are a couple of starting places for the modern concept of bigfoot. In 1921, the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition found tracks in the snow resembling a bare human foot. They realized the tracks were probably made by wolves, the front and rear tracks overlapping and the snow melted enough to obscure the paw pads. Expedition leader Charles Howard-Bury wrote that the expedition’s Sherpa guides claimed the tracks were made by a wild hairy man. At about the same time, the 1920s, British Columbian schoolteacher John W. Burns was collecting reports of Native encounters with giant wild people. He coined the term Sasquatch by anglicizing a couple of different words from several different Native dialects. Burns published his stories in magazines. Howard-Bury talked to reporters about his Everest expedition. The idea of bigfoot took shape and took off in the public imagination. It merged with giant apes and ape-men in popular culture, like King Kong in 1933 and the movie Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932, both of which were huge hits. Before this, from the early 19th century to around the 1940s, newspaper reports that would today be called bigfoot sightings were attributed to wild men or occasionally to esc...

This week we investigate a couple of famous lake monsters, Nessie and Champ. Don’t worry, there are more lake monster and sea monster episodes coming in the future! Most lake monster pictures look like this. Compelling! This was taken in Loch Ness: The famous Mansi photograph taken in Lake Champlain: Beluga whales are really easy to spot. Look, this one has a soccer ball! Further reading: Hunting Monsters by Darren Naish Abominable Science! by Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Back in March, we released an episode about sea monsters. For a long time it was our second most downloaded show, behind the ivory-billed woodpecker, although the jellyfish and shark episodes have taken over the top spots lately. I always intended to follow up with an episode on lake monsters, so here it is. Let me just say going in that I think most lake monster sightings are not of unknown animals. On the other hand, I also firmly believe there are plenty of unknown animals in lakes—but they’re probably not very big, probably not all that exciting to the average person, and probably not deserving of the name monster. But who knows? I’d love to be proven wrong. Let’s take a look at what people are seeing out there. One of the biggest names in cryptids is Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. She and Bigfoot are the superstars of cryptozoology. But despite almost a century of close scrutiny of Loch Ness, we still have no proof she exists. Loch Ness is the biggest of a chain of long, narrow, steep-sided lakes and shallow rivers that cut Scotland right in two along a fault line. Loch Ness is 22 miles long with a maximum depth of 754 feet, the biggest lake in all of the UK, not just Scotland. It’s 50 feet above sea level and was carved out by glaciers. During the Pleistocene, Scotland was completely covered with ice half a mile deep until about 18,000 years ago. And before you ask, plesiosaurs disappeared from the fossil record 66 million years ago. Loch Ness isn’t a remote, hard to find place. All the lochs and their rivers have made up a busy shipping channel since the Caledonian Canal made them more navigable with a series of locks and canals in 1822, but the area around Loch Ness was well populated and busy for centuries before that. Loch Ness has long been a popular tourist destination, well before the Nessie sightings started. There have been stories of strange creatures in Loch Ness and all the lochs, but nothing that resembles the popular idea of Nessie. Rather, the stories were of water monsters of Scottish folklore like the kelpie, or of out-of-place known animals like a six-foot bottle-nosed dolphin that was captured at sea and released in the loch as a prank in 1868. Then, in August of 1933 a couple on holiday from London, Mr. and Mrs. George Spicer, reported seeing a quote “dragon or prehistoric animal” unquote crossing the road 50 yards or so in front of their car near the loch. Mr. Spicer said quote “It seemed to have a long neck which moved up and down, in the manner of a scenic railway, and the body was fairly big, with a high back.” unquote. The creature was gray and seemed to be carrying a lamb or other animal at its shoulder. Spicer described it as 25 to 30 feet long, with no feet or tail visible although Spicer said he thought the tail must be curved around behind the body. You know what else happened in 1933? King Kong was released in April of that year. If you haven’t seen the movie, or haven’t seen it in a long time, there’s a long-necked dinosaur in the movie that overturns a raft and kills the men aboard. The movie was a sensation unlike anything today, and that dinosaur looks identical to what George Spicer described seeing, right down to the details of the hidden feet, tail curved behind the body, and even the lamb or other animal it was carrying, since in the movie,

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Jo Benhamu. 00:00:40 An archaeological site in a Moroccan cave has long been known to have specimens of early humans. But an recent study has dated some of these bones to over 300,000 years old. If correct, that would make them the oldest fossilised remains of modern humans ever found - and it would change our understanding of the spread of humans out of Africa. For books to help explain evolution to young children, we recommend Grandmother Fish by Jonathan Tweet and Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came To Be by Daniel Loxton. 00:10:34 In the latest send-animals-to-space experiment, flatworms were studied on the International Space Station. And things got weird - especially with one worm that grew two heads! 00:15:42 Recently a lot of scientists have been suggesting that we're currently in the midst of a sixth mass extinction - and we humans are the prime cause of it. But Smithsonian paleontologist Doug Erwin argues that we're not there yet. Things are bad but to call it a mass extinction isn't really accurate. 00:19:42 And are humans hard-wired to look at faces? A study shines a light on what babies see in the womb.   This episode contains traces of John Oliver talking about vaccines on Last Week Tonight.

Just in time to miss Halloween, this episode has us reading Supernatural and Paranormal Non-fiction. And by “reading” we mean “not reading”, as several of us fail to finish any books. Thankfully, we can blame everything on gremlins. Plus wolfmen, ghosts, mermaids, dramatic readings, and special guests.   Your hosts this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Inti Dewey |  Jessi Recommended (thanks entirely to Jessi) Ghosts: A Haunted History by Lisa Morton National Geographic Ultimate Guide to Supernatural Places by Sarah Bartlett Haunted Hotels by Jo-Anne Christensen The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Paranormal by Nathan Robert Brown Read Yurei: The Japanese Ghost by Zack Davisson The Little Book of True Ghost Stories by Echo Bodine Mermaids 101: Exploring the Magical Underwater World of the Merpeople by Doreen Virtue Did Not Finish On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T. Asma Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids by Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero Sex & the Paranormal by Paul Chambers Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory by Stacy Horn Will Storr vs. The Supernatural: One Man's Search for the Truth About Ghosts by Will Storr Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans by Malachi Martin Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America by Linda S. Godfrey The Strange Case of Hellish Nell: The Story of Helen Duncan and the Witch Trial of World War II by Nina Shandler The Enigmas of History: Myths, Mysteries & Madness from Around the World by Alan Baker Haunted Girl : Esther Cox & the Great Amherst Mystery by Laurie Glenn Norris Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn't by Steve Volk Links/Other Supernatural vs. Paranormal Normcore, Superflat, and Supernormal? What Anna means by Scary Stories and More Scary Stories is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz XKCD ruins Matthew’s ability to believe Nazis and the Occult The Spear of Destiny Hellboy's World: Comics and Monsters on the Margins by Scott Bukatman references Mr. Wuffles by David Wiesner Alien languages in Futurama (not specifically mentioned, but a good example) A Ghost Story by Matthew Murray Aokigahara: The Japanese Suicide Forest Koro: The "overpowering belief that one's genitalia are retracting and will disappear" (women did it) The dangers of Dungeons & Dragons The sad life of Rosemary Kennedy Hellish Nell’s story in the format that Matthew prefers A compendium of paranormal askReddit discussion threads The magic sound introducing our guests is "fairy magic wand" by Robinhood76 from freesound.org. Questions What colour of the rainbow did you cross over into Atlantis on? What appeal factors for the paranormal/supernatural genre did we miss? How could cataloguing be altered to make things more ‘findable’? Can you draw our Guardian Gremlins for us?

In this week’s episode of MonsterTalk, Eugenie Scott, Brian Regal, and Daniel Loxton join Karen Stollznow and Blake Smith to discuss The Yeti. This episode was our first-ever dedicated Yeti talk, as well as our first-ever live streamed show, which aired on YouTube on Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 8 pm EST. Read the episode notes

Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 8 pm EST Join us for our first ever MonsterTalk live streaming event. Scheduled guests Eugenie Scott, Brian Regal, Daniel Loxton will join Karen and me to discuss The Yeti. So this will be our first dedicated Yeti talk, and our first live streaming show. I hope you can join us. How do you attend? A link to the show is pinned at our Facebook page, and will be on our website at monstertalk.org. There’s also this short link that is (hopefully) easy to remember: http://bit.ly/monstertalklive2016 We’ll make the audio of that available in the podcast feed, and the resulting video should be posted to YouTube if it all works according to plan. Watch the live stream on YouTube

Aujourd'hui, épisode un peu spécial car je vais aborder le livre "Abominable Science !" en compagnie Jean-Michel Abrassart, l'hôte du podcast "Scepticisme Scientifique". Son podcast que vous connaissez sûrement (sinon il est indispensable de l'écouter) a pour vocation d'aborder des sujets assez variés (ufologie, parapsychologie, contre-apologétique, scepticisme, etc) avec un regard sceptique et scientifique sur les questions que tout ces thèmes peuvent soulever. Il m'a fait découvrir ce livre à travers son podcast et je ne voyais personne d'aussi pertinent que lui pour venir en parler avec moi ! Nous vous parlerons ainsi des auteurs, Daniel Loxton et Donald Prothero avant d'embrayer sur le contenu du livre et ensuite aborder un livre qui n'a rien à voir et un livre que Jean-Michel Abrassart aimerait lire. Les références des livres évoqués Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids ISBN : 0231153201 (ISBN13 : 9780231153201) Auteur : Daniel Loxton et Donald R. Prothero Nombre de pages : 411 pages Date de parution : 06/08/2013 chez Columbia University Press Prix : 26,14€ (version reliée) chez Amazon The Hastur Cycle ISBN : 1568820097 (ISBN13 : 9781568820095) Auteur : Robert W. Chambers, Robert M. Price, H.P. Lovecraft Nombre de pages : 304 pages Date de parution : 01/12/1993 chez Chaosium Prix : 16,92€ chez Amazon et 17,32€ à la Fnac Philosophie de la religion ISBN : 2711622827 (ISBN13 : 9782711622825) Auteur : Cyrille Michon et Roger Pouivet Nombre de pages : 384 pages Date de parution : 01/07/2010 chez Vrin Prix : 13,00€ chez Amazon et à la FnacVous pouvez enfin retrouver l’ensemble des livres cités sur la liste goodreads associée à ce podcast sur le compte de LisezLaScience. Les livres seront placés sur des “étagères” spécifiques par épisode et ceux de celui-ci sont sur l’étagère “lls-12” : https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/30797714-lisezlascience?shelf=lls-12 Prochain épisodeOn se retrouve le 12/04/2015 pour un nouvel épisode sur le livre "Une histoire de tout ou presque" de Bill Bryson. D’ici là à bientôt à toutes et à tous.

Our guest this week is Donald Prothero, paleontologist, geologist, and author of the new book Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten our Future. He's an expert on the effect of past climate change on the fossil record, as well as the co-author of Abominable Science, a skeptical look at  cryptozoology and cryptozoologists with Daniel Loxton. Science Denialism is a many-headed hydra that rears up when people don't want to believe what science tells us. In this day and age, science has enough cache that educated people don't openly reject it when it tells them things they don't want to hear. Instead, they imitate the trappings of science to advance a political agenda.  There was "Big Tobacco" making up fake science and slandering critics to convince the world that smoking is good for you, then there were the apologists for nuclear proliferation, spreading bunk science about the survivability of nuclear war. When the courts decided that teaching Genesis in science class was unconstitutional, fundamentalists got busy manufacturing pseudoscience in the form of Young Earth Creationism and later Intelligent Design. Vaccines have slashed childhood death rates worldwide but some people still aren't prepared to accept this fact, and prefer to fixate on pseudo-scientific conspiracy theories. Perhaps the most dangerous example of science denialism is the fossil fuel industry funded campaign to convince the public that climate change isn't real. Host Lindsay Beyerstein discusses all this and more with Donald Prothero.

In this episode of MonsterTalk, Blake interviews Junior Skeptic author/artist Daniel Loxton on the final book in his prehistoric animal thrillogy, Plesiosaur Peril. We talk about dinosaur names, raising kids with science literacy, and the reboot of Cosmos. READ the episode notes

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Daniel Loxton, longtime Editor of Junior Skeptic, the 10-page kids' science section bound within Skeptic magazine, author and illustrator of the national award-winning kids' science book Evolution: How We and All Living Beings Came to Be, and a series of illustrated books subtitled Tales of Prehistoric Life. Loxton has published two major essays on skeptical activism; "Where Do We Go From Here?" in 2007, dealing with the focus and direction of the new generation of skepticism, and which helped to inspire the SkeptiCamp community organized conferences on scientific skepticism; and "What Do I Do Next?" in 2009, providing ideas and suggestions for individual involvement in the skepticism movement. Recently, Loxton, along with co-author Donald R. Prothero, has written an entertaining, educational and definitive text on cryptids, presenting the arguments both for and against their existence. Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids systematically challenges the pseudoscience that perpetuates these myths, and examines the nature of the science and pseudoscience within cryptozoology. 

This week Derek releases one of the interviews that he recorded while at The Amazing Meeting. On the first day of TAM, the new book penned by Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero, 'Abominable Science', made its debut. So, Derek stole some time with Daniel and Donald to talk a bit about their latest collaboration, and get some of their impressions from their time doing the research into the many Cryptozoological topics packed into the informative tome.

MonsterTalk returns from its break with guests Donald Prothero and Daniel Loxton who introduce their long-awaited book Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids. READ episode notes

Interview with Daniel Loxton; This Day in Skepticism; News Items: Osteoarthritis, Patenting DNA, Foot Fungus, Chinese Fake Alien, New Type of Star; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Can We Know Everything; Science or Fiction

Interview with Daniel Loxton; This Day in Skepticism; News Items: Osteoarthritis, Patenting DNA, Foot Fungus, Chinese Fake Alien, New Type of Star; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Can We Know Everything; Science or Fiction

In this shambolic episode Darren and John do a little Bigfoot followup, and then ramble on about movies. Surprisingly, there's some good podcastin' on Jurassic Park in here, as Darren picks it apart, piece by tiny piece. Also a live listener question on Alien.Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero's Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids.Sharon Hill's discussion of our Bigfoot episode on IDoubtIt.

This week Derek presents double Dino-related goodness! First off he has a discussion with Tyler Keillor, a Fossil Laboratory Fossil preparator and Paleoartist. Then Daniel Loxton, of Jr. Skeptic, joins in to talk about his newest book, "Pterosaur Trouble", the next installment in the 'Kids Can Press' line of "Tales of Prehistoric Life" books.

This week on Skepticality, Derek talks with Daniel Loxton about his latest book, Ankylosaur Attack. Then, checks in with Ann Druyan to discuss a bit about the current world of science and her current work on the sequel to the groundbreaking science miniseries, Cosmos and the upcoming 2012 Dragon*Con Skeptrack Carl Sagan Essay contest.

Hosts: Lucas Randall, Penny Dumsday, Kylie Sturgess. Topics Covered: Diamond planets, climate change and the scientific method Despite winning acclaim for his children's book on evolution, Daniel Loxton faced some challenges getting published in the US Are wild birds learning to speak from their previously domesticated cousins? New study provokes a re-think on dingoes' history It may not be up to sci-fi standards, but 'suspended animation' is ready for clinical trials as a life-saving technique Near-death experiences may indeed be all in the mind, triggered by changes in serotonin levels

This week, MonsterTalk continues its discussion of the intersection between science and cryptozoology. The hosts interview Dr. Donald Prothero and Daniel Loxton, who are working on a book that will give a deep overview of the field of cryptozoology and how it intersects with actual science. This interview was recorded at The Amaz!ng Meeting 8 in Las Vegas. READ full episode notes

This week after returning from The Amazing Meeting 8 - a conference celebrating skepticism and critical thinking sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation, Skepticality is pleased to host a round table discussion with a distinguished group they have dubbed "Team Skeptic". Daniel Loxton (editor of Junior Skeptic and author of Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be), Blake Smith (paranormal investigator and creator of the Skeptic podcast Monster Talk) and Tim Farley (creator of WhatsTheHarm.net and the Skepticality contributor of This Week in Skeptic History) discuss their impressions of this year's Amazing Meeting Las Vegas with hosts Derek and Swoopy.

This week Skepticality welcomes two of the members of the Los Angeles-based band Artichoke: Timothy Sellers (who pursued physics before deciding on music) and Steve Collins (an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory).Artichoke is known to many eSkeptic readers for the song Mary Anning, their highly popular contribution to the Skeptics Mix Tape 2009 project. (As Mix Tape curator Daniel Loxton explains, "Artichoke is really top tier science music. There are vanishingly few bands who can match their catchiness and scientific depth.")On this episode, Swoopy chats with Timothy and Steve about the special challenges in writing fun, accessible music that also portrays scientists accurately — as featured on the band's albums 26 Scientists Volume 1: Anning – Malthus, and 26 Scientists Volume 2: Newton – Zeno.

This week's guest is Daniel Loxton, author of the kid's book titled, "Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be." Show notes at: http://laboutloud.com/

In this episode, the hosts of MonsterTalk talk with Greg Long, author of the 2004 book The Making of Bigfoot (which was reviewed at the time by Skeptic’s own Daniel Loxton). Long’s book is built from hours of interviews with surviving contemporaries of Roger Patterson, the filmmaker who shot the influential Patterson-Gimlin footage. For many people, this film remains the best evidence that Bigfoot is real. However, Long’s research uncovered a side of Patterson most people had never heard of before — and it isn’t pretty. According to Long, the famed Bigfoot film shows nothing more than a man in a modified gorilla suit. Moreover, Long may have found the man who wore it… READ full episode notes

This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with a true skeptical original: Skeptics Society co-founder Pat Linse, co-publisher and Art Director of Skeptic magazine. She is among skepticism's most influential pioneers — and yet, she has rarely stepped into the public spotlight. Among Pat's many groundbreaking innovations was the creation of Junior Skeptic (the 10-page kids' critical thinking insert bound within Skeptic magazine). Joining Pat in this interview is current Junior Skeptic editor and illustrator Daniel Loxton, here to talk about their latest creation: a full-color children's book released this week by Kids Can Press, entitled "Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be".

Ben Radford is is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into psychics, ghosts and haunted houses, exorcisms, Bigfoot, lake monsters, UFO sightings, crop circles, and other topics. He is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine and author of Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us, and Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures (with Joe Nickell). He also writes online at LiveScience.com, MediaMythmakers.com and Monsterscience.com. In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Ben Radford surveys the current issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which is focused on "Skepticism 2.0" and the future of the skeptical movement. He describes various articles by contributors to the issue such as Daniel Loxton, Jeff Wagg, Karen Stollznow, Blake Smith, Heidi Anderson, Reed Esau, Tim Farley and others. He talks about blogging, podcasts and youtube and the opportunities they present for new skeptical outreach. He explores ways national skeptical organizations can collaborate. He talks about why it is important to build on the important work of skeptical luminaries such as Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, James Randi, Martin Gardner and Joe Nickel, and how to do so. And he also talks about his sacrilegious board game Playing Gods.

Though the celebrated and the famous have long used the glare of the spotlight to highlight personal causes, rarely has fame been used to such staggering effect as by Jenny McCarthy. Since 2007, this former Playboy model now turned autism activist has advocated for parents to stop vaccinating their children against deadly diseases. This week on Skepticality, Swoopy talks with Derek Bartholomaus, creator of “The Jenny McCarthy Body Count” website. This chilling and controversial site utilizes data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to keep a running tally of illnesses and deaths from vaccine preventable diseases - a sobering reminder of the human cost of anti-vaccination rhetoric. On a lighter note, Derek & Swoopy also talk with Junior Skeptic Editor Daniel Loxton about the launch of the “Skeptics Mix Tape” project. This eclectic collection of songs of science and skepticism are available as free MP3s from Skeptic.com.

Interview with Daniel Loxton; News Items: Dennis Lee Strikes Again, Computers That Do Science; Your Questions and E-mails: Home Energy Scam; Science or Fiction; Who's That Noisy

Interview with Daniel Loxton; News Items: Dennis Lee Strikes Again, Computers That Do Science; Your Questions and E-mails: Home Energy Scam; Science or Fiction; Who's That Noisy

In 2007, Junior Skeptic Editor Daniel Loxton called for renewed focus on classical skeptical activism in an essay entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" Released simultaneously as a PDF from Skeptic.com and as an audio essay on Skepticality, this article drew tremendous positive response. But many listeners wanted to know, what’s the next step? How does one become a skeptical activist? This week, Skepticality and Skeptic.com are pleased to release the follow-up project, "What Do I Do Next?: Leading Skeptics Discuss 105 Practical Ways to Promote Science and Advance Skepticism." Daniel Loxton returns to tell Swoopy how a panel of 13 skeptics contributed almost 30,000 words of impassioned, in-depth commentary to this groundbreaking document — and how skeptics like you will take it to the next level.

This week, Skepticality rounds out its Dragon*Con coverage with the Skeptrack panel inspired by Junior Skeptic Editor Daniel Loxton's op-ed essay, "Where Do We Go From Here?"  Daniel also joins Swoopy to share his thoughts upon hearing the panel discussion, and about skeptical trends. Panelists for this conversation about the future of skeptical activism include the JREF's James Randi and Jeff Wagg, Skeptical musician George Hrab, The Secular Coalition for America's Lori Lipman Brown , Center for Inquiry's D.J. Grothe and Benjamin Radford, Australian skeptic Dr. Karen Stollznow — and by popular demand, new JREF president Dr. Phil Plait.

Recent episodes of Skepticality have touched on issues of outreach and activism in the skeptical community, and how skeptics like Jeff Wagg, Alison Smith and Daniel Loxton are using their particular talents to help nurture science and critical thinking. This week, Derek and Swoopy are pleased to continue this trend with their interview of evolutionary ecologist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson.  Dr. Olson's film, Flock of Dodos: The Evolution - Intelligent Design Circus, is not your typical evolution versus ID documentary. Rather than simply pitting one camp against the other, this whimsical film explores how the two sides of the debate market their ideas to the public—and, more specifically, how the scientific community has failed to capture their audience as effectively as the Intelligent Design camp has done in recent years.

Who is the watchdog for paranormal scams and mistakes if we won't do it?  This week, Daniel Loxton (editor of Junior Skeptic) offers his own personal perspective on the future of skepticism as a movement. Presented as an original full-length audio article his op-ed essay argues that the search for a "new skepticism" is misguided—and that the early titans of skepticism had it right in the first place.  Then, Derek and Swoopy sit down with Daniel to talk about the skeptics paradox: that so many people feel exhausted and fed up by the paranormal, at the very time that the most exciting new developments—from podcasts to conferences to community—are firmly focused on our core paranormal concerns.  Has classic skepticism run its course? According to Daniel, we're only now getting ready to start.

Derek and Swoopy chat about TAM4, PodcasterCon and Skepchicks in fishnets. Fraser Cain interviews Daniel Loxton, editor for Skeptic Magazine's Junior Skeptic. (re-posted 1/4/06, error fixed)